


Damaged At Best

by Little Grey Gargoyle (silasfinch)



Category: Succession (TV 2018)
Genre: Canon-Typical Behavior, Emotional Baggage, F/M, Gen, Older Woman/Younger Man, POV, Power Dynamics, Sexual Tension, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-12-02 02:38:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20973293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silasfinch/pseuds/Little%20Grey%20Gargoyle
Summary: Gerri is playing power games with Roman. Feelings weren’t suppose to happen. The power is addictive.





	Damaged At Best

**Author's Note:**

> I am obsessed with this dynamic  
Please be gentle with feedback - I am dyslexic

The broken locks were a warning  
You got inside my head  
Tried my best to be guarded  
I'm an open book instead  
I still see your reflection  
Inside my eyes  
That are looking for purpose  
There still looking for life

I'm falling apart  
I'm barely breathing  
With a broken heart  
That's still beating  
In the pain (In the pain)  
Is there healing  
Lifehouse Broken

Gerri Killman despises waste and losing potential.

She is a woman who is obliterating the proverbial glass ceiling. As the general counsel for Waystar Royco, Gerri cannot claim to possess a strong moral compass. Twenty years of feeding and enabling the ambition of Logan Roy and his offspring will destroy any foundation of right and wrong leftover from law school. Her entanglement becomes worse after Baird's death. Work becomes the centre of her universe even without the token COO offer. She will bend the law around the whims of one media magnate. However, she still hates the notion of people languishing away without purpose or direction.

All the Roy children and anybody in Logan's orbit is messed up in some way. The 'Boar on The Floor' incident and the Kendell's failed attempt to gain control through the majority board vote are proof of that. Wealthy people at the top of their industries all cowering before a man still recovering from a brain aneurysm.

Roman Roy wears his dysfunction openly.

Each of the others desperately tries to assert an independent identity with everything from sourdough bread to supporting hemp wearing political candidates. They are equally power-hungry (cue presidential run) but take pains to paint over the evidence. Most of the time, Roman doesn't bother with the pretext if you listen hard enough between the cursing and the constant references to sex and various anatomy parts.

Her friends and family will mount a collective intervention across timezones if they learn of this little dalliance. Everyone is already pissed at her for returning to work so quickly and never turning off her emails. Nowhere in the widow blogs and books does it advise to start a semi sexual mentorship with a much younger man who is your godson in all but name.

However, there is a certain appeal to the challenge of moulding a man with genuine potential and not the muesli tech startup variety.

**I. Hearing Desire**

The power is addictive.

Gerri wasn't lying when she said that young heirs jerking off are the least of her scandals. Some of the corporate parties in the past would make Kendell seem like a teetotaller and Roman a maiden from deepest conservative Texas. In the age of social media can't ignore human dignity entirely anymore.

"You know what I'm doing?"

Gerri barely resists the urge to laugh and rolls her eyes silently. The edge of desperation in Roman's breathy voice makes it obvious what he is doing or attempting to do. Why is it that the young think that all older people are so quickly shockable?

"From the sounds of things you aren't doing anything very successfully, Romulus for all your big talk and claims. You are worse than Greenpeace trying to save the whales; all talk minimal success rate."

As they keep exchanging insults and barbs, Gerri sinks into an alternative universe and forgets about the troubles for the night. Her only goal is to push this spoiled brat who she strangely cares for over the edge. There is an excitement in the air that she only usually experiences when negotiating a merger bid or finding a way out of Logan's latest mess.

She doesn't touch herself, but the temptation is stronger than the lawyer would like to admit. The performance is affecting; there is no doubt about that. Gerri has seen far better amateur porn in her time, but she will still need to replace expensive stockings, if for appearances alone.

**II. Seeing Change**

If Logan had any estimate for doctors or the medical profession, Roman would receive treatment and supervision for ADHD or something.

The man can barely sit through a five-minute conversation much less a high-level board meeting with financial reports and pivot tables. In part, he is putting on a theatrical act to distinguish himself from his siblings. There is are elements of attention-seeking that go back to childhood. Logan actively encourages his children to compete in all things. Some of the 'games' as kids were bordering the line of barbaric.

Part of her desire to take on this new role is the challenge and the distraction from her loneness 

"Why are we doing this? I already know Waystar's holdings; Dad practically made us memorise them with the alphabet."

"Do you want another sanctimonious lecture about the price of milk?"

For all his complaining and fake skimming of the documents, Her student is sitting still and following her directions. Once he stops referring to the members of the board, he would like to screw on the conference table Roman is surprisingly astute about the inner working of Waystar. Despite herself, Gerri does find his caustic observations amusing. They have more colour than Kendall's stammering correctness and Shiv 's leftist politics.

"What are you getting out of this Mother Mary and words of wisdom arrangement?" Roman asks curiously

I**II: Feeling Trust**

Maulding Roman Roy is surprisingly easy.

The changes she is cultivating may only last as long as Conner's presidential bid. However, the time of the hostile takeover and the obsession with the Pierce family any change is worthwhile. She isn't there as long term therapist or agony aunt. Though lord knows the Oedipal references are apparent to anyone. The goal of the exercise is to make the sex-crazed man into a functional human being.

The first step is making him understand the consequences of the Japanese Satellite situation and everything else. Gerri knows there is no grand moral awaking here, but he needs to talk with some coherence on the subject.

"Why can't we pay off the fingerless fuckers and be done with it? I'll even through in some of my best toys since there jerking off won't be an option without..." Roman trails off with that manic laugh

They are sitting together Roman's apartment. The coffee table is a mess of reports, photos and press statements. Her laptop is showing the footage on repeat complete with epic explosions and Japanese's curse words.

"There is more at stake than a few fingerless civilians Roman. We need to consider financial and diplomatic implications. Your little trail of email is still on every news cycle. Just below speculation about your father's declining health and Kendell's septum" Gerri growls

Gerri takes a deep breath as she tries to focus on the figures. Roman is standing beside her close enough to smell his expense aftershave. She ideally wonders if Tabatha influences his choices in such matters.

Roman steps further into Gerri's personal space; their bodies are almost touching. He is breathing softly against her cheek. The most obvious sign of his arousal is pressing firmly into her skin. Expense clothing doesn't hind the evidence. She rocks back against the sensation without saying a word or moving to stop the contact.

"Ok take me through the figures again, but please turn off that video. I see the fucking metaphor to my life in my dreams enough as it is" Roman sighs against her ear.

"Progress in many areas, Rome" Gerri whispers with the hint of approval.

**IV: Smell of Surrender**

"I could hire 30 women who were better looking and better qualified as a sex therapist and mentor than you. Hell, my girlfriend sleeps with half the men and woman in the city. You are the widowed friend of my dad."

"Your father doesn't have friends only subjects with varying degrees of loyalties. You haven't gone through every halfway decent sexologist in America for this problem?"

Gerri makes the quip for lack of a coherent response to the observation. For once Roman doesn't mean his words as an insult. She is nothing but a family retainer who is closer than most. There is no reason for this added complication to the arrangement, but she didn't stop the progression that night, and she can't bring herself to regret that decision.

"Believe me; I supported multi-head shrinker's brats through college. This little problem was beyond their pay scale. Sex therapists only go so far when there is no sign of progress. So do libertine girlfriends. You are mentoring the most skewed up of the Roy children, Gerri."

His words are meant as a joke, but there is an old seriousness to the underlying message.

"I like the challenge. Besides you barely rate on the scale when it comes to the Roy family. At least you know your limitations and aren't trying to become the leader of the free world to compensate."

**V. Taste of Desperation**

Caring about Romulus Roy was never part of the plan.

Gerri knows that calling this mess of a situation a plan is vastly overstating the case. A first-year associate would have the nerve to call her current predicament a clusterfuck of epic proportions. However, semantics and splitting hairs are lawyers lifeblood.

Roman is kissing her in the private jet as they create a giant carbon footprint while trying to do the impossible for Logan.

"Slow down Rome; you aren't trying to absorb me by osmosis" Gerri chides as they come up for air.

She means for the words to be bitting an insulting. Exchanging barbs would be in keeping with the unwritten rules. Instead, the admonishment is strangely tender and affectionate.

"How much do you think it would take to bribe the pilot to stay in a holding pattern? The terrorism patterns are for the lower classes, right?" he gasps.

"Let's not create another international incident because you have discovered a functional libido. The paperwork for the last one was enough of a headache."

Making out in the back of a private jet is far from the weirdest thing Gerri has done in the last few decades. However, there is an absolute thrill in hiding in the corner whispering instructions and having Roman fall to his knees, keeping absolutely still. Maybe she should read those popular books about BDSM and filthy vocabulary.

***

"How is the boy doing? How much will I need to pay out in indemnity insurance?"

Gerri feels a surge of guilt as she reads Logan's text, struggling to see with her second part of glasses. Her reading ones are still in the suitcase. She hasn't bothered to unpack in this featureless hotel room somewhere in Europe. They have done so much travel recently everything blends together.

There is little doubt about which of those questions the Roy patriarch cares about most, and it isn't the health and well being of his third son. Gerri ideally wonders what Logan would say if he knew that the man in question is lying naked on her bed in a semi-coma after his third orgasm.

"Don't you know that Blue Light will destroy your optic nerve and brain? We funded a study or something than buried the results" Roman mutters into the pillow.

"When you get to my age, the brain and body are already starting the slow decay" Gerri replays drily.

"I can give you top marks for physical exertion if you like, that thing with your tongue" Roman disagrees sleepily.

Gerri ignores the comment and doesn't return the flattery. In truth, the experience was challenging, awkward and messy. Roman has enough sexual issues with filling the next version of the DSM VR or even future additions. The constant stream of consciousness and worrying made it different to maintain the fantasy of a hot young stud.

However, they fall into a natural rhythm as the night progresses. He becomes a bible lover and does everything she wants. The power is addictive, and Gerri takes the opportunity to explore her hidden kinks or lingering questions about pain thresholds.

There will be no happily ever after for them in fact reality will intrude soon in the form of a tweet from ACN resident Nazi or stock price. However, right now, she is going to enjoy this unusual dynamic and power. Kissing Roman to stop his continuous rambling is one of her favourite things in the world.

She will convey none of these points to Logan Roy. He will appreciate her sticking to the salient points.

Fine. No issues


End file.
